by: Mickey Ingles

An explicit video is making the rounds, allegedly naming and showing FEU volleyball player Carly Hernandez engaged in some un-wholesome activity. To make things clear at the outset, Carly Hernandez is not the girl in the video. In a 19 February 2019 statement, FEU has condemned the “wrongful tagging” and considers it “an act of cyberbullying.”Carly’s fans and brother have also come out with statements of support for the volleyball stand-out and has asked people to stop spreading fake news about Carly.

The sad part about this whole thing is that it can happen to anyone. It’s so easy for a lowlife son of a bench to post a video online, claim the person in the video is someone who it’s clearly not, and then hide under the anonymity the Internet provides. What the fork, right?

But, let’s assume we manage to remove this blanket of anonymity and discover who this ash-hole is, what crimes can he or she be liable of?

Cyberlibel?

The forker can be liable for cyberlibel. Under Article 353 of the Revised Penal Code, libel is committed when someone publicly or maliciously imputes to another an act tending to cause the dishonor, discredit, or contempt of person, among others. Under Section 4 (C) (4) of the Cybercrime Prevention Act, libel becomes cyberlibel when it is committed through social media or the interwebs. It carries a prison sentence of four years, two months, one day to eight years.

Posting the sexually explicit video online and falsely claiming the person in it is Carly is arguably cyberlibel, as it imputes through the internet an act that tends to cause the dishonor, discredit, or contempt (a.k.a. a private sexual act which when made public causes distress and dishonor) of a person (a.k.a. Carly).

Under the Implementing Rules of the Cybercrime Prevention Act, only the original author of the post, or in this case, the person who uploaded the video and placed Carly’s name on it will be the person liable for cyberlibel.

Cyberbullying?

In its statement, FEU considered the video “an act of cyberbullying.” So, can the dillwad who named Carly in the video be liable for cyberbullying? Well, not really if you want to be technical. Cyberbullying is covered under the Anti-Bullying Act of 2013. Bullying is student-on-student harassment that, among others, infringes on the rights of the victim or causing the victim emotional harm. If done online, it’s considered cyberbullying. The thing is, the Anti-Bullying Act applies to primary and secondary schools, and not to a college or university like FEU.

Even if it won’t be considered cyberbullying in the technical legal sense, it’s common sense that you should just Carly a break, show her some support, and stop sharing that video.

But if you want to be an asshole like that, then that’s on you. (Oops, my The Good Place curse words ran out for that one).

Mickey Ingles is the editor-in-chief of Batas Sportiva. He’s forking tired of people who do these things. Every time I see these things I’m like